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Thursday, April 05, 2007

Only had to buy a red pepper for this Hoisin Beef and Edamame Noodle dish!

After last night's dinner, I still had just about half a pound of raw flank steak left over. When I was doing the menu planning on Saturday, I knew I would have some leftover... so I went on a mission to find something in my to-try piles which only used close to that amount.

The main reason I picked out this recipe, Hoisin Beef and Edamame Noodles, was that I only needed to pick up a bell pepper as the bulk of the recipe called for ingredients we almost always have lingering in our pantry or freezer. While some soba (buckwheat) noodles boil away, we quickly cooked the rest of the thinly sliced flank steak in pungent toasted sesame oil that has been heated in a large skillet. I love how sesame oil brings in such a rich nutty background without needing a large amount of it. After just a couple minutes, the steak is removed and diced red bell peppers are added to sauté in the juices the steak left behind. The edamame (green soy beans) are stirred in and the two are left to thoroughly heat through. I always have some frozen edamame in the freezer, so we quickly thawed them by running the beans under cool running water until they started to have some give to them. Fresh ginger is added, followed by the cooked beef and a dressing made from fresh lime juice, hoisin sauce, chile-garlic sauce and cornstarch. The cornstarch only takes a minute or so to thicken the dressing up and we were ready to toss in the soba noodles and fresh cilantro. Tangy and slightly sweet from the hoisin, there was only enough dressing to just barely coat everything - I would double the sauce next time as it was almost too dry. I used two full teaspoons of the chile-garlic sauce and it was just spicy enough for us - feel free to adjust to your taste. If you don't have access to soba noodles, I imagine this would work just fine with whole wheat spaghetti!

I finally made this tonight and it was delicious. I took your recommendation and doubled the sauce and used 3 teaspoons of the chili-garlic sauce which I would reduce to 2 next time as it was a bit spicy (and I can take spicy). This is the first time I've cooked with hoisin, chili-garlic sauce and soba noodles but it certainly won't be the last! Thanks for the recipe!